The NFL, NBC and every Ad/PR firm on the face of the world is saying yes for all the reasons wall street loved credit default swaps. CA$H!

But would a public auction be more accurate? Steven Dubner from Freakonomics fame takes a deeper look.

Click here to view the embedded video.

My highest compliments to an amazingly professional effort to move the Papers, printed over 40 years ago into an easily copy/paste format for educators, students and historians.

May I suggest photoshopping the faded lines of text in attached memorandums?

By simply modifying the brightness level of the image’s histogram (using the Levels tool in Photoshop) it would benefit many readers who like me, find focusing and recognizing faded text somewhat difficult to read.

The example here took less than one minute to produce a deeper, darker text that makes character recognition much easier to comprehend.

BTW: Its wonderful to color hilight sections of any volume of the study on an iPad.  And carrying around this entire 7,000+ page, 47 volume study is just remarkable.

If there is a way to get there — I would make the trip in a ping.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Proving that ‘tigers eat their young’ those same pundits are already calling Google+….the next GoogleWave.

Wave? Oh, how quickly did you forget about Google’s last B-L-U-N-D-E-R in social media?  Feels like yesterday Google was so slowly handing out Wave invites that it actually killed user adoption by the time they got around to “launching” the product.

Wave was so over-hyped by those same pundits who were also on twitter begging for a Wave invite.  I recall them wishing they could be part of the Wave hype….until the exact moment they logged into Wave they found out how complex the UI was presented. Boy did Google deserve one hard shot right to the groin for that social train wreck.

So those who consider themselves social media leaders (or innovators) are actually voicing their displeasure with Google+ after its been public for just 30 days?  Oh the irony.  I cannot help but relish that quote from earlier this year that puts all those social media so called leaders or innovators into context:

“99.5 Percent Of Social Media Experts Are Clowns”
-Gary Vayerchuk interview

I attended a social media briefing two weeks ago where the guest ‘innovator’ actually stated Google+ would “totally wipe out LinkedIn” but not kill Twitter.  Interesting since LinkedIn plays to the business hiring community. And with a mid-May IPO valuation of $4.3 billion (yes that’s B — as in Billion) I somehow think the hype got the better of them yet again.

Expectations regarding Google and social media are simply out of control.  It will never be what any of those pundits want. With today’s accepted fast user-adoption model it might be time to re-evaluate a “3 strikes and your out” policy.  Will it be strike-two and your out for Google?

I hope not especially since they have been upfront to keep business away for the moment from embracing Google+ as a replacement for corporate Facebook.  It helps when you generate AdSense revenue of $2.04 billion.

Here is one sales method Google successfully employed in the UK to secure Wave penetration into the Higher Education community: Tie Wave accounts to every University student, faculty, staff and alumni when the institution migrates costly legacy email services to Google Apps for Education.  Wave made inroads in UK Universities using that exact strategy.  If Google truly wants Plus to establish a social media juggernaut, then make Plus a standard component of the Google Apps for Education strategy.  And throw in Google Voice for good measure too.

If Wave was killed due to languishing in beta Plus has a chance. Today Google can scale more efficiently than it could just four years ago (Google server infographic) However even with their infrastructure in place they have stumbled a bit out of the gate regarding Plus.

But its not a killer after just 30 days people!

Remember – in the end its all about managing expectations.  Unfortunately social media pundits expect Google to scale Plus into the stratosphere where Facebook sits.  Even with all of Google’s servers they are still not engineered to take advantage of this type of roll-out strategy…..yet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Smart’s Smartboard allows a teacher using a custom pen with touch recognition to control a software program while standing in-front of the Smartboard.  There is no better example of the use of Smartboards than the educational marketplace.  The term “SmartClassroom” has been around for over a decade.  The call to replace ancient chalkboards with Smartboards continue to grow louder and louder.

But just hold on a minute.  The popular message to schools is simple: “Go Digital” and embrace “high tech” in your classroom.  Parents think their children are getting a better education simply because their school has installed Smartboards.  But the costs are so high (between $3,000 and $8,000/unit) that some K12 Districts hold special fund raising events to pay for these units.  And as a result critical services like bandwidth are ignored….but this is another discussion.

While working at an Art college in Wisconsin I was interested to learn about a “grant opportunity” to add Smartboards into classrooms.  I arraigned a two week “kick-the-tires” evaluation from Smart Technologies’ regional sales office.  Yes – a two week test drive. My goal was to obtain a real-world understanding of this technology to justify the purchase, install, design and lead a faculty training program.

During my testing period I was also fortunate to take a campus tour of Marquette University’s installation of Smartboards around campus and even take a look at their new SmartClassroom in the new Raynor Library.  Several vendor installations around campus successfully demonstrated a range of working interactive whiteboards.

But once again the products from Smart Technologies failed to impress.  It left an impression on me that Smart Technologies is all about Paris Hilton selling cheeseburgers?

What did I learn?  If you can actually find the time to analyze this product and really give it an honest evaluation, you will be disappointed.  It misses the mark on “smart.”  Smart’s unit failed so terribly that I refer to them as Dumbboards.  The conversations at Marquette were just as interesting, a limited choice of supported applications really kill the marketing hype of these products.  However at the same time the real, functional SmartBoards integrated into SmartClassrooms have a price point over $40,000 per room.

Guess What?  S E X sells even in Ed Tech
Everyone is so hooked by the “sex” of “Smartboards” — and ignoring the product’s limitations.  Part of my arrangement included a vendor demo.  Things could not have started off on the wrong foot in-front of the College’s Faculty, Administrators and IT staff. The demo crashed three times during a 1-hour sales presentation.  I can guarantee that with three crashes, you’ll even lose the support from the IT group … and they are used to demo crashes.  Faculty and administrators were laughing after the second crash.  Holding out all hope….I gave up after the third.

Reading the fine print:
So was I missing something?  This led me to question what I may have overlooked in all those positive reviews.  Why are schools installing these units?  This product simply does not work as advertised becuase Smart’s products require all software used to be modified.  Here is the fine print from the company’s website:

Which computer applications can I use?
Any application that you use on your computer will work on a SMART Board interactive whiteboard. Some commonly used applications, such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel and Word, and AutoCAD, are especially well integrated for use with SMART Board interactive whiteboards. Depending on the application, you can save files with notes, convert handwriting to text or activate tools when you pick up a pen from the SMART Pen Tray.
While any software will work on a SMART Board interactive whiteboard, some applications are designed specifically for use on interactive whiteboards. These applications may feature large buttons and scroll bars for easy manipulation and low toolbars for easy access by children or seated users.

–Okay: The company’s PR states “Some commonly used applications” which really means Word, Excel, PowerPoint and AutoCAD have been modified by their programmers to be “especially well integrated” to their touch pen.  Smart must tweak software in order to fully sync their touch recognition (pen input device) with the code used by Adobe to control Photoshop’s menus.

Adobe is one of the biggest software companies on the planet and yet the only Adobe product “supported” by Smart (yea….get ready for this shocker) is Acrobat Reader.  Yes, Reader!  Not Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign or even Acrobat Pro…just Reader.  Do you really need an $6,000 interactive whiteboard to “interact” with a .PDF file?  What bullshit!

So what this does this limitation say upfront about the product? Let me put it this way: If your school’s software is not on their special list, you just purchased a space shuttle to drive to the grocery store to pickup a gallon of milk.  And your school is stuck with a $6,000 old-fashion projector even when you get updated software next year!

To make matters worse schools are ALTERING their curriculum in order to bring Dumbboards into the classroom.  Oh yes, lets let companies actually dictate what software is taught in schools.  Faculty are actually permitting Smart’s software programmers to dictate their lesson plans.  How does this play with students or their parents?  Okay students like the “wow” factor of playing with the device in class. But seriously how can any curriculum director approve this expense while budget cuts are hitting everyone?

Can a Table make you smarter?
At the 2009 Brainstorm 10.0 conference in the Wisconsin Dells I had an opportunity to see Smart’s Microsoft Surface knockoff called the SmartTable. Smart is selling this table to schools for a whopping $8,000.00 and aimed square at K12 School Districts.  I would ask any K12 teacher or curriculum director if YOUR approved curriculum software is able to be loaded onto SmartTable.  I’m afraid their demo was even less impressive. as I began to see that their custom software cannot be modified easily.

Smart will point you to their custom programming tools (SDK) that permits schools to make changes to “force” the school’s software to work.  So the School purchases software from company X but has to have their own IT staff program custom program software application Y in order to join the “some commonly used software” list?  Yea right.  Schools are losing budget dollars left and right yet Smart wants your school’s IT staff to program software changes?

I gave the SmartTable a spin at BrainStorm 10.0 and was not impressed with this “dumb” product either. They were taking a hint from the buzz surrounding Surface and pitched it to grade schools.  When I first stood in-front of the unit I was thinking of Microsoft’s Surface.

When I watched the the demo I realize it was nothing more than another Dumbboard.  When I read the technical specifications I learned it was a kluge of a design.  Many think the SmartTable is a flat panel TV mounted on a table with touch recognition.  The Table is in fact just a projector inside the box shooting its display against the glass surface.  Not very high tech (or smart) at all.

A real-world Smartboard for just $500.00
Three years ago I advised the college in Milwaukee Wisconsin to forgo a Smartboard and leverage grant money to purchase a slew of Dell projectors.  Why?  From each instructor’s workstation (and every faculty laptop) Dell’s projector runs every software WITHOUT required modification.  Best feature?  Dell projection units support High-Definition video.  Should it really surprise you that Smart’s $8,000 Table does not support HD video?

Note to sales rep: Know your audience!
The Dumbboard has custom software that includes a built-in “art” library that looks like it was designed by a 2nd grader with the attention span of Boo Radley using KidPix. Don’t show this proudly to teachers at an Art School as a key feature of the product.  It’s outright insulting.  And when you demo Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint for faculty, don’t expect a roomful of artists to “light up” when you execute an Excel macro.  Just admit up front the Dumbboard does not support Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash or InDesign.

The excitement of a product from Smart Technologies should wear off in 90 seconds. Otherwise your still hooked on the marketing…and Paris Hilton.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Began an amazing job this week. Looking forward to new challenges and inspirations.

A combination of art performances including dance, music, visual arts and videography with commentary and discussion were integrated to create a compelling set of experiences.  The session included an overview of the multi-institutional activity involving students, faculty, and administrators. Classes of students from Florida State University, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), Butler University, University of Calgary, University of Cincinnati and Indiana University Bloomington met in the months prior to the festival in order to plan and rehearse their respective performances online.

This session examined the presentation of telematic art to the general public via Internet2 at the downtown Indianapolis Public Library. This effort involved strategies to intermingle both high and low bandwidth venues into a seamless, integrated performance environment.

This Friday Wisconsin will introduce their initial CI Day event at UWMilwaukee with remote viewing supported around the State.  It was great to hear WiscNet’s Shaun Abshere at this session today in Q&A regarding Friday’s coming session and supported remote technologies that will be used.

UW CI Day event program at UW-Milwaukee.

The VideoServer component is able to transcoding media streaming that will be published online. This component is also responsible for working with flv, ogg and h264 formats. The MapManager controls and displays the interactive map of Arthron components. MapManager offers to users an overview of the geographical distributed locations of Arthron components.

Today’s panel session included representatives from network organizations and their new community partner discussing their experience and providing their perspective on the opportunities, challenges and lessons learned when building new communities.

David Reese CTO from CENIC (Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California) stated they have provided iPads to everyone with all mapping of fiber routes is now digital (Google Earth) and paper maps are simply being ignored.

Session link

“Amazon Windowshop is a top-to-bottom rewrite of Amazon.com — designed and built without compromise just for iPad,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com.

Harvard law professor Yochai Benkler has written a very comprehensive book to describe conflicts between analog and digital data creators in society and how internet based technologies are changing society and commerce.

It’s a good read but hard to grasp due to a focus on economics. Don’t be fooled the by title if your looking at computer networks….he has written it into the binding that ties his arguments together.  It is truly worth the read.

Benkler shares how technology has merged the professional and the consumer into a ‘prosumer’ due to low cost and high performing computers and robust networks have made distribution of information cheap enough that community is now empowered to drive change.

Take a look at how the internet has evolved.  The Akami to YouTube migration showed how multimedia has found a free, reliable distribution center.  When you also migrate 1st generation complex, large scale websites to new blogs and content management systems under the open source business model Benkler states that data is now a “non-rival” product that has democratized the digital workflow of data from brick and mortar to community, peer-developed content solutions.

Benkler suggests modern computing drives new, strong and deep collaboration that can have a large impact on the global economy and society.  Benkler also suggests that as more consumers embrace technology collaboration, change to our culture is possible due to engines of free exchange (wikipedia, creative commons, open source and the blogosphere) could be more efficient (when shared) than current models that are restricted by copyright and patents because the ability to duplicate (or reproduce digital content) makes little or no impact on business.

Tags: The Wealth of Networks, Social Technologies, economy, society, Yochai Benkler, education, change, reading, trends

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Only 13 percent of the professors surveyed said they used blogs in teaching; 12 percent had tried videoconferencing; and 13 percent gave interactive quizzes using “clickers,” or TV-remotelike devices that let students respond and get feedback instantaneously. The one technology that most teachers use regularly—course-management systems—focuses mostly on housekeeping tasks like handing out assignments or keeping track of student grades.

The survey, answered by 4,600 professors nationwide and did not ask about PowerPoint, which anecdotal evidence suggests is ubiquitous as a replacement for overhead and slide projectors.

Emerging Technologies for Online Learning Symposium, held in San Jose, by the Sloan Consortium.

There seems to be a lesson for all those technology enthusiasts and “leaders” in k12 education:  Regardless of forcing faculty to utilize LMS, they are simply not using technology.

So is the technology investment paying off?  Universities have been investing millions into classrooms and lecture halls. With very tight budgets today I wonder if there is going to be a call for institutional reviews of technology spending.  Clearly the mantra of “build it and they will come” does not apply.

Outside of the mandatory use of LMS solutions (indicated above) faculty have clearly pushed back against technology while their students (paying customers) are eager to embrace the latest consumer electronic releases across the board.  This must be frustrating for IT, Academic affairs and the CFO’s office.

The Numerati is a great read regarding the impact of advanced analytics across the board.  I was impressed with mathematicians Baker interviews and the surprising number who eventually work for IBM or the NSA.  Baker has written a book about how the best mathematicians are changing the way we live by processing amazingly vast amounts of data and simply detecting patterns.  The data comes via mouse-clicks, cell phone calls and credit card purchases just to name a few.

It sounds simple.  On the surface with today’s high performance computing and powerful consumer technologies.  But Baker shows how mathematicians are working to draw upon extremely high levels of computational power to deliver products and solutions that will dramatically impact our lives.

At the same time some of the projects mentioned seems more ‘wonderland’ in design. Yet consider the amount of data created by the Large Hadron Collider for example, the emerging world of Big Science is just starting to take off.

Chapters tackle different subjects (mentioned above) and as others. Many have indicated the shopping chapter is the best of the book. It was very enjoyable to read.  Some of the ideas and inventions about health were interesting, some ideas a bit hard to wrap around your brain – like the ability of a floor tile to detect if your elderly father has a change in an existing medical condition.  Another example, how a computer can analyze a sequence of video (over time) and determine in your are prone to suffering Parkinson’s disease.

We do however live in a world today with amazing powers in biology, science and engineering.  Once dreams of having a Dick Tracy watch in the 1930s has been eclipsed by some revolutionary ideas mathematicians are working with today.  Baker also acknowledges how mathematicians are working to help detect terrorists in a very interesting chapter on safety.  His ending conversation with Google’s top SEO expert also reveals something about mathematicians, they ultimately analyze the numbers they are presented.  Baker lasting image for the reader is to help mathematicians focus on looking at the most accurate numbers for accurate analytics.
A great book that shows you the potential for good….and the opportunity for harm.

Book Website

Tags: Steven Baker, The Numerati, mathematicians, High Performance Computing, future, analytics, trends, reading